How to strengthen Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) in education? Five panelists from Germany, Norway, the US, and the OECD provide insights from different perspectives, namely education policy, state-of-the-art research and RPP practice. The panels’ two main goals are a) to identify premises of successful individual RPPs across a variety of contexts and b) to identify contextual conditions advancing the RPP implementation within an education system.

Strengthening the use of research in education practice has become an impactful policy imperative in the past two decades (OECD 2022). Stakeholders from all sides - research, practice, policymaking, and funding agencies lament the wide gap between research evidence and what is practiced in schools (Hartmann & Kunter 2022). RPPs are a specific format of collaboration in which tightly knit communities of researchers and practitioners collectively engage in research to improve school and teaching practice. In four subsequent sections, the panel addresses our guiding question:

Section 1: What defines a successful partnership?

Asking how to implement successful partnerships requires a stringent definition of what success means in a RPP. RPP outcomes may be manifold and located on a variety of different levels and dimensions (cp. Coburn & Penuel 2016). But, are there common denominators of what RPPs seek to achieve?

Section 2: What are premises for a successful partnership?

The definition of success, enables us to think more stringently about the conditions within a partnership that lead to the aspired outcomes (cp. Farrell, Penuel et al. 2021; Lillejorda & Børte 2016; Donovan, Snow et al. 2021). Raphaela Schlicht-Schmälzle draws on data from a systematic literature review in the PaTH-project on premises of success in a RPP. Against this theoretical background, Jennifer Wargo, Kåre Andreas Folkvord, and Kjersti B Tharaldsen will provide data and experience from various RPPs in Norway and the US. Jennifer Wargo provides insights from LATTICE, a university-K12 partnership at Michigan State University aiming at strengthening intercultural education. Kjersti B Tharaldsen presents data from the MOVE-P project at University of Stavanger aiming at strategies of stimulating academic motivation among students in upper secondary schools in the Rogaland County. Kåre Andreas Folkvord will be able to contribute premises for high quality collaborations from a wide range of partnerships with kindergartens and schools at the University of Stavanger.

Section 3: Which environmental and systemic conditions support the implementation of RPPs?

Individual RPPs are also embedded in very specific systemic environments. Comparing policy frameworks in different countries will contribute to understanding how the systemic context affects RPPs. Nora Revai will present data from a comparative OECD study exploring actors and mechanisms that facilitate research use in OECD systems. The data provide insights into systemic conditions of partnership implementation. The OECD's international perspective will contextualize the discussion on RPPs by highlighting some of the key barriers countries are facing in making sure that practitioners use education research systematically and well. Kåre Andreas Folkvord will add further insights on systemic factors by speaking about the Norwegian national scheme for local competence development and how this contributes to a growing RPP culture in Norway but also how it affects his work with individual partnerships.

Section 4: Perspectives on future RPP work and research

The panel closes with a focus on research gaps and potential future research. What do actors in individual RPPs – within universities, research institutions, schools, classrooms, and/or school districts – yet need know about how to implement successful partnerships? What do stakeholders in education policy need to know about how to develop a strong RPP culture in an education system? Answers to these questions can contribute to a research agenda that positively affects the development of RPPs.

Coburn, C. E., & Penuel, W. R. (2016). Research–Practice Partnerships in Education: Outcomes, Dynamics, and Open Questions. Educational Researcher, 45(1), 48–54. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X16631750 Donovan, M.S. Snow, C.E., Huyghe,A. Differentiating Research-Practice Partnerships: Affordances, Constraints, Criteria, and Strategies for Achieving Success, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Volume 71, 2021, 101083, ISSN 0191-491X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2021.101083. Farrell, C.C., Penuel, W.R., Coburn, C., Daniel, J., & Steup, L. (2021). Research-practice partnerships in education: The state of the field. William T. Grant Foundation. Hartmann, U. & Kunter, M. (2022). Mehr Praxis in der Bildungsforschung? Eine Studie zu Praxisperspektiven in Forschungsprojekten. [More practice in educational research? A study on practice perspectives in research projects] bildungsforschung, 2/2022. (translated version) https://bildungsforschung.org/ojs/index.php/bildungsforschung/article/view/892 Lillejord, S. & Børte, K. (2016) Partnership in teacher education – a research mapping, European Journal of Teacher Education, 39:5, 550-563, DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2016.1252911 OECD (2022), Who Cares about Using Education Research in Policy and Practice?: Strengthening Research Engagement, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d7ff793d-en.